Wine tasting subscription service Vinoa looks to recruit 12,000 members in 2015

ByGemma McKenna

Published: 28 January, 2015

Wine tasting subscription service Vinoa is aiming to have 12,000 subscribers by the end of 2015, and has launched a crowdfunding appeal to help reach the target.

Vinoa is gearing up for rapid expansionIt hopes to have increased the number of subscribers from 500 in the first six weeks, to 12,000 by year-end 2015.

The firm, which launched in November 2014, has 500 subscribers so far, each of whom signs up for a sample pack of four miniature bottles of wine to allow them to try before buying more premium wines.

It is now looking to raise £450,000 on Crowdcube, which is live until February 15, 2015, in order to expand further and look at tailoring the wines on offer to suit customer needs. The sample pack is designed to be slim enough to fit through most letterboxes, and is delivered by Royal Mail.

The wines offered in the samples range in price from £8.99 to £19.99 for a 75 cl bottle and subscribers receive four 50 ml sample bottles per month in the post for a £9.99 fee, which includes delivery.

Cyrus Tchahardehi, CEO of Vinoa

It hopes to have increased the number of subscribers from 500 in the first six weeks, to 12,000 by year-end 2015.

Cyrus Tchahardehi, chief executive of wine subscription service Vinoa, told Harpers.co.uk: "We've got proprietary anaerobic re-bottling packaging process, and we'd like to scale up and automate that process as well as develop our app and increase our marketing spend to bring in new consumers."

Tchahardehi has been working on this idea since July 2013, obtained funding through private investors a year later, and soft-launched the service in September 2014. Vinoa launched properly mid-November, amid a flurry of interest from the national press, which meant it secured its first 500 customers within the first six weeks.

The company is 100% UK-focused, and currently buys the wines from UK importers before repackaging them. Tchahardehi says that once it reaches 2,000 subscribers, it will be better-positioned to strike deals with importers or producers. Each month it focuses on another "classic" region - so far these have included Argentina and California to name a few. Customers who like a particular wine have the opportunity to buy a full-size bottle through Vinoa if they choose.

Tchahardehi has worked in the wine trade for 15 years and headed up on-trade sales for six years Boisset until 2011 when he left to start a hospitality training company.